McCombe "We have the quality"

Former Iron man says Rovers have the quality to "put their stamp" on today’s local derby and come away with all three points.

Jamie McCombe honestly stated that the start to this season has been “difficult” but insisted that if they concentrate on putting the basics right, the quality in the team will shine through.

“Certain aspects of this season have been difficult so far. When you have players leave and lots of new players coming in you’re never going to gel straight away.

“The performance against Walsall was not good enough by any means. We had a lot of words afterwards in terms of putting that right and we know we need to improve on the basics.

“We know what’s right and what’s wrong. We’ve been working really hard to put Saturday’s mistakes right and out of mind and we are now totally focussed on playing Scunthorpe which is a big game for us.

“We owe the fans a performance today and hopefully if we put the performance right the result will follow.

“When you suffer a defeat you always want a game as soon as possible afterwards to put things right. A week is a long time in football, especially to be stewing over a heavy defeat.

“The lads haven’t been downbeat. We know the quality is there, we just had an off day but we can’t continue to have off days if we want to achieve our aims this season.

“If we want to be pushing for promotion we need to put things right and that’s what we’ve all worked hard on this week.

“Everyone has accepted criticism and taken it on board, but the real test is how we as a team bounce back. Everyone knows the importance of today’s match, but it’s equally important not to get caught up in the occasion. We need to remain focussed and do the basics right. If we do that, with the quality this team has we will grow into the game and put our stamp on it.

“I remember being at Bristol City and after seven games we were in the bottom two but still won automatic promotion that season. It just shows what a good string of results can do.

“In the Championship you know before the season starts which teams are going to be up there pushing for promotion, but at this level it changes all the time. It’s a long season and the table can change very quickly with points being so few and far between.

“If we string two or three results together there is no reason why we can’t climb the table fast and you’d be amazed at how much a couple of good results can boost the confidence of the players, fans and everyone at the club. We know the importance of a winning run because in football momentum is important.

“We’ve had all week to work on the fundamentals that we didn’t get right last week which will hopefully stand us in good stead going forward."

The experienced defender started his career at Scunthorpe and spent 3 years with the club making 63 appearances during his time there.

“I know a fair bit about Scunthorpe, I started my career there and I owe them a lot. I know the manager well- I used to clean his boots when I was in the Youth Team. They are struggling with injuries and finding it tough at the minute so it’s a huge game for both teams. Hopefully we’ll be in for an entertaining match but one that we come out winners.

“If we play the way we know we can play there is no reason why we can’t take all three points.

“It’s frustrating as a player to be in an unpredictable division like League One, but it’s up to us now to step forward and take this challenge on. Hopefully everybody is up for that and we can progress.

“The beauty of football is how passionate people are from one week to the next. For us as players all we want is to hit that level of consistency. Everyone knows we aren’t going to win every week but if we can get that rythm going and get on a run we really feel that the play offs are an achievable target.

“We want to put in a good performance and get the fans behind us again."